Design rule checking integrated circuits

ABSTRACT

A method of design rule checking an integrated circuit identifies any line having a line width marker and line width parameter, extracts each line having a line width marker, determines the line width parameter for each extracted line, and compares the line width parameter with an actual line width for the line.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This is a divisional application of application Ser. No.10/199,727, titled LINE WIDTH CHECK IN LAYOUT DATABASE, filed Jul. 19,2002 (pending), which application is assigned to the assignee of thepresent invention and the entire contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates generally to integrated circuitlayout, and more specifically to verification of integrated circuitlayouts.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Typical micron level integrated circuit manufacture requiresextensive layout of components and pathways between components. Thepathways between components carry signals and power back and forthbetween components. Some components do not require much power or do notcarry much current. Pathways between these types of components can bemade very small in width of the metal that carries the signals or thepower. However, other components have higher power or currentrequirements.

[0004] As power and current requirements go up, a standard minimum linewidth for carrying power or current between or to those components isinsufficient. Typical minimum line widths for components that do notdraw much current are on the order of 0.2 microns wide. On the otherhand, lines that carry power or current to or from supplies and largecomponents may need to be on the order of 10 to 1000 microns wide. Thewider lines are required to carry the current as well as to avoidresistive drops and electro migration problems.

[0005] Various software solutions exist to perform certain checking ofparameters in schematics, layouts, and the like. A typical designprocess begins with schematic, moves to layout, and then to design andon to fabrication. Along the way, checks are typically made ofparameters and the like. For example, a line width check program checksto see if the lines in the (schematic or layout) are at least at orabove an absolute minimum width (usually 0.2 microns). When the layoutis complete, aside from the line width check, an inspection is made,typically manually, of checking that the lines that are required orcalled for to be a width greater than the absolute minimum are indeedlaid out at the required or called for widths. Since integrated circuitscan be extremely complex, such a visual inspection is very timeconsuming, and is prone to human error.

[0006] Once the layout is complete, a layout versus schematic program isrun. The layout versus schematic program compares the electrical circuitdesign (schematic) with the physical design (layout). Once the layout iscomplete and checked with the LVS, a design is extracted. When thedesign has been extracted, a design rule checker (DRC) program is run.The DRC measures spacing, overlap, and sizes of masking dimensions andthe like on the layout to ensure that circuit dimensions will conform tothe fabrication process capabilities. The DRC includes a check for linewidths only to the extent that it checks to see that each line is atleast an absolute minimum width. Lines requiring a greater width are notverified to that greater width.

[0007] For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated belowwhich will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading andunderstanding the present specification, there is a need in the art forimproved checking of layout line widths in integrated circuit layouts.

SUMMARY

[0008] In one embodiment, a method of design rule checking an integratedcircuit identifies any line having a line width marker and line widthparameter, extracts each line having a line width marker, determines theline width parameter for each extracted line, and compares the linewidth parameter with an actual line width for the line.

[0009] Other embodiments are described and claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0010]FIG. 1 is a flow chart diagram of a method according to anembodiment of the present invention;

[0011]FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram of a more detailed description of aportion of FIG. 1;

[0012]FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram of a more detailed description of aportion of FIG. 1;

[0013]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a schematic according to oneembodiment of the present invention;

[0014]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a layout according to one embodimentof the present invention; and

[0015]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a computer on which embodiments ofthe present invention are practiced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] In the following detailed description of the embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a parthereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specificembodiments in which the inventions may be practiced. These embodimentsare described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the invention, and it is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical and electricalchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the presentinvention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to betaken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention isdefined only by the claims.

[0017] Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow arepresented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmicdescriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled inthe data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance oftheir work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, andgenerally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leadingto a desired result. The steps are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capableof being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwisemanipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasonsof common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be borne inmind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associatedwith the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenientlabels applied to these quantities.

[0018] Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from thefollowing discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the presentinvention, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or“computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem's registers and memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computer system memories or registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

[0019] In this application, a design refers to a set of netlists, whichare representations of connections and elements of a circuit. A netlistis a list of nets and transistors present in a layout. A netlist can beextracted from a schematic or a layout. Netlists are representations ofall connections and elements present in layout or schematic, in otherwords a list of nets and transistors. Design in the various embodimentsof the invention is of netlists which are representations of theconnections and elements present in the layout and the schematic.

[0020]FIG. 1 is a flow chart diagram of a method 100 for checking theaccuracy of an integrated circuit layout and design. Method 100comprises creating a schematic in block 102, and adding line widthmarkers to selected lines having a line width greater than an absoluteminimum line width in block 104. For each line having a line widthmarker, a width parameter is assigned in block 106. A layout is createdfrom the schematic in block 108. In one embodiment, the layout has theline width markers and parameters integrated therein. In anotherembodiment, the layout is drawn as specified by the parameters of themarkers, as it is not necessary to put the markers in the layout. If aline has a marker in the schematic, that line can be matched to a linein the layout and need not be duplicated in the layout itself. Thislayout may be drawn manually, and may not necessarily be accurate. Alayout versus schematic operation is run in block 110 to check that thelayout line widths for all lines having a line width marker and linewidth parameter meet the schematic marker parameters.

[0021] The layout versus schematic comparison, a standard operationperformed by many software packages, verifies that the marker present inthe schematic is also present in the layout. If the line has a constantwidth and the marker is drawn at the edge of the line, the line width isextracted by this program and compared to the line width property of theschematic marker. This provides a check that the line width has beenproperly implemented in the layout. Typically, the width is extracted byidentifying the ends of the line and measuring the width across theline. However, if the line width varies over its length, or if there isno clear end of the line as the line connects to different circuits andbranches out, the width check becomes more difficult. Current softwaretools are not able to handle these cases.

[0022] In this embodiment, once the layout versus schematic is verified,a design representing the layout is extracted in block 112. Thisextraction comprises in one embodiment obtaining or retrieving the widthproperty that has been entered in the schematic, and annotating thelayout with the width property. Once the layout and schematic have beencompared, and are found to match, a correspondence between any schematicobject marked with a width marker and its related layout object is made.Thus, for every line width marker in the schematic, its line widthmarker and the line, or net, are associated in a layout database. Oncethe layout database and circuit schematic are matched through the LVScomparison, each schematic object is associated element by element withits related layout object. Each given net in a schematic has acorresponding drawing in the layout. Every line in the schematic isuniquely identified with its corresponding line in the layout. Everyschematic net that has a line width marker also has that marker dataassociated. Once the schematic and layout are matched, the data that isin the schematic can be transferred to the layout, for example the widthparameter. This allows the marker property to be copied from theschematic to the layout. The correlation in one embodiment is stored andcan be used later to continue to verify the design as the fabricationprocess continues.

[0023] The design is checked in block 114 to determine whether thedesign line widths for lines having a line marker in the layout are atleast as wide as the layout line widths. A standard width check istypically performed by Design Rule Check (DRC) software. Typical DRCprograms, as described above, flag all lines below a certain width.However, such packages only check for one width, the absolute minimumwidth, for a given layer. In the present embodiment, the DRC programapplies the same width check algorithm to every line. However, it firstobtains or retrieves the width property associated with the line by theassociation process described above, and checks the width of the linebased on that property. Thus, each selected line is checked for itsspecific width. For example, one line is checked for a width of 10microns, while another line is checked for a width of 100 microns. If aline does not have a width marker, it is not be checked. Thosenon-marked lines are still checked for minimum width by the standard DRCprogram check.

[0024] In one embodiment, for the design check, which in variousembodiments is a design rule check (DRC), excludes checking in areas ofthe integrated circuit near or above a connected transistor. This isbecause portions of the lines in areas above or near a connectedtransistor do not need to have the specified minimum widths, especiallyin the case of a transistor with many legs. A predetermined area ischosen around the area of a transistor that is sufficient to allow thenon-standard width requirements for lines in such circumstances anddesigns.

[0025] A method 200 for performing a layout versus schematic check on anintegrated circuit layout is shown in flow chart form in FIG. 2. Method200 in one embodiment is an elaboration on block 114 of FIG. 1, andcomprises comparing layout line widths with an existing line widthmarker parameter for each line of a circuit layout in block 202, andindicating an error if a layout line width is less than its line widthmarker parameter in block 204. Using the various embodiments of markinga schematic and converting it to a layout as have been described above,an existing layout having a line width layer having line widthparameters for lines that have a width requirement for a width greaterthan an absolute minimum line width, such as those lines carrying poweror current is used in this method.

[0026] The layout has a line width marker and line width parameter foreach line having a width that must be maintained through design andimplementation. For block 202, the method extracts for each line havinga line width marker its respective line width parameter. Then, theextracted line width parameter is compared to the actual line width onthe layout. If the actual line width is greater than or equal to theline width parameter, the line width is acceptable and process flowstops at block 206. If the actual line width is less than the line widthparameter, an error condition exists, and this error is recorded orindicated at block 204.

[0027] A method 300 for performing a design rule check on an integratedcircuit design is shown in flow chart form in FIG. 3. In one embodiment,lines are tagged with line width markers and associated line widthparameters in a schematic stage, and carried through to a layout, asdiscussed in further detail above. Method 300 comprises extracting aline width marker and an associated line width parameter for a designline in block 302, and comparing the extracted line width parameter withthe actual design width for each line having a line width marker inblock 304. If the actual design line width is greater than or equal tothe extracted line width parameter for a given line, the line width isacceptable and process flow stops at block 306. If the actual designline width is less than the line width parameter, an error conditionexists and is recorded or indicated at block 308. In one embodiment, thecomparison of tagged line widths versus layout line widths is bypassedfor predetermined areas of the design on or near a connected transistor.

[0028] A schematic 400 for an integrated circuit is shown in FIG. 4. Theschematic 400 comprises a plurality of circuit components 402interconnected by lines 404. Each line 404 has an associated width. Mostlines have a width of a default minimum size, but do not require anyspecial width. However, certain lines, such as those carrying power orcurrent, for example to connected transistors and the like, have a widthrequirement greater than the default minimum size. A line width layerfor the schematic 400 contains in one embodiment a line width marker 408for each line having a line width greater than the default minimum linewidth. Each line width marker 408 has an associated line width parameter410 that represents a minimum line width for the line 404 associatedwith the marker 408 and parameter 410. As an example, lines 404A and404B in FIG. 4 have non-default line widths. These widths are containedas line width parameters 410A and 410B in line width markers 408A and408B respectively, which are in turn contained in line width layer.

[0029] A layout 500 according to another embodiment of the presentinvention is shown in layered isometric form in FIG. 5. The layoutcomprises a component layer 502 having a plurality of circuit componentsinterconnected by a plurality of lines. Each of the lines has someassociated width, which are in one embodiment stored in line width layer504. Some lines have minimum widths that are greater than an absoluteminimum width due to their functions or expected uses, such as carryingpower or current. Thus, some lines have minimum widths that aresignificantly larger than a typical minimum line width in an integratedcircuit. For each line having a nonminimum width, a width marker 506 isassociated with the line. Each width marker also has an associated widthparameter 508. For example, line 510A has a line width marker 506A withan associated line width parameter 508A of 100 microns. This line widthparameter 508A is present in the marker 506A, which in one embodiment ispositioned in a separate line width layer of the circuit schematic andlayout. In this example, line 510B has a line width marker 506B with anassociated line width parameter 508B of 50 microns.

[0030] By way of example only and not by way of limitation, advantagesof the various embodiments of the present invention include improvedaccuracy in checking for non-standard line widths, and accuracy intransferring schematics to layouts to designs.

[0031] The methods shown in the Figures may be implemented in whole orin part in various embodiments in a machine readable medium comprisingmachine readable instructions for causing a computer such as is shown inthe Figures to perform the methods. A computer 600 on which embodimentsof the present invention are run is shown in FIG. 6. The computerprograms run on a central processing unit (CPU) 602 out of main memory604, and may be transferred to main memory from permanent storage 606via disk drive or CD-ROM drive when stored on removable media or via anetwork connection 608 or modem connection when stored outside of thecomputer 600, or via other types of computer or machine readable mediafrom which it can be read and utilized.

[0032] Such machine readable media may include software modules andcomputer programs. The computer programs may comprise multiple modulesor objects to perform the methods in Figures or the functions of variousapparatuses of the Figures. The type of computer programming languagesused to write the code may vary between procedural code type languagesto object oriented languages. The files or objects need not have a oneto one correspondence to the modules or method steps described dependingon the desires of the programmer. Further, the method and apparatus maycomprise combinations of software, hardware and firmware as is wellknown to those skilled in the art.

Conclusion

[0033] A method for checking line width in integrated circuit design hasbeen described that includes marking each non-standard line with a linewidth marker, and associating the line width marker with the line toallow the line width to be checked at any point in the design processagainst the desired line width. This is accomplished in part using theannotation of the layout with the line widths marked on correspondingschematics, and a DRC based on a variable line width parameter, whichdiffers for specific geometries.

[0034] It is to be understood that the above description is intended tobe illustrative, and not restrictive. Although specific embodiments havebeen illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement, which is calculatedto achieve the same purpose, may be substituted for the specificembodiment shown. This application is intended to cover any adaptationsor variations of the present invention. Therefore, it is manifestlyintended that this invention be limited only by the claims and theequivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of design rule checking an integratedcircuit, comprising: identifying any line having a line width marker andline width parameter; extracting each line having a line width marker;determining the line width parameter for each extracted line; andcomparing the line width parameter with an actual line width for theline.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting excludes lines nearor above a transistor.
 3. The method of claim 1, and further comprisinggenerating an error condition when the actual line width for the line isless than the line width parameter.
 4. The method of claim 1, andfurther comprising indicating or recording an error when the actual linewidth for the line is less than the line width parameter.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein each line having a width marker has a width greaterthan a minimum width for that line.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinidentifying any line comprises identifying any line in a schematic. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein each extracted line has a line widthmarker in a layout.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein each extractedline has a line width marker in a line width layer.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the line width parameter represents a minimum linewidth for the line associated with that line width parameter.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, and further comprising extracting a width for eachextracted line.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the linewidth parameter for each extracted line comprises extracting the linewidth marker and line width parameter for each extracted line.
 12. Amethod of design rule checking an integrated circuit, comprising:identifying any line having a line width marker and line widthparameter; excluding the line if it is near or above a transistor;extracting each line having a line width marker; determining the linewidth parameter for each extracted line; and comparing the line widthparameter with an actual line width for the line.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, and further comprising generating an error condition when theactual line width for the line is less than the line width parameter.14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the line width parameterfor each extracted line comprises extracting the line width marker andline width parameter for each extracted line.
 15. The method of claim12, wherein identifying any line comprises identifying that line in aschematic.
 16. A method of design rule checking an integrated circuit,comprising: identifying any line having a line width marker and linewidth parameter; extracting each line having a line width marker;determining the line width parameter for each extracted line; comparingthe line width parameter with an actual line width for the line; andexcluding from comparing any portion of the line near or above atransistor.
 17. The method of claim 16, and further comprisingindicating or recording an error when the actual line width for the lineis less than the line width parameter.
 18. The method of claim 16,wherein determining the line width parameter for each extracted linecomprises extracting the line width marker and line width parameter foreach extracted line.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein identifying anyline comprises identifying that line in a schematic.